Compared with Las Vegas shock and awe program, North Las Vegas is downright sleepy, and quiet. It isn’t nearly as brightly lit or frenetic as Sin City itself, but it has a great combination of tucked-away peacefulness and accessible action that many natives love. Many Las Vegas employees live in North LV. Its a quick escape with a short commute and even more inexpensive rents, though it attracts some high flyers, which is crazy, because Vegas has shockingly low cost real estate to begin with itself. It must have something to do with those 110-plus-degree summers that start in February and last until November. The entertainment is a little different up north too. People like parks and fairs, shopping centers and golf courses more so than slot machines and robotic black jack dealers in red vests.

North Las Vegas is a mere six miles from Sin City, but its approximately a world away as well. The city motto for NLV is "Your Community of Choice," which may refer to its superiority as a residential location or its open-mindedness about womens rights--probably the former. Either way, it has a lot of options for work and play, which are a bit more in keeping with Middle America’s notions of respectability than its neighbors to the south. Green enterprise is big here; the city is pushing for environmentally friendly companies to come in and revitalize the stagnant job market and push NLV into the future. There are also scads of golf courses, including the world famous Shadow Creek. It--probably--goes without saying that young adults love it here since nightlife choices are limitless (Community of Choice, you guys!) and the cost of living is laughably low.

Oh, there are things you need to know. Are you naive? A blushing Midwesterner eager to make her way into the Vegas spotlight by sheer will, some natural good looks and lots of pluck? Just stop, you. You will get eaten alive. But if youre pretty grounded, street smart and wise to the shenanigans of the shadowy world of gambling and addiction, you’ll probably be just fine. This isnt a gangster’s paradise, but common sense goes a long way.

Fortunately, that’s pretty much all the negative right there. The great news is unemployment is dropping, home sales are rising and renters make up a good portion of the residents. Here, you can enjoy an inexpensive lifestyle filled with amenities ranging from simple and silly to complex and dangerous. A car is absolutely necessary, but public transit is fairly decent, and the weather is such that youll never have to invest in snow tires. Of course, it can snow on occasion in the Mojave Desert, but only every few years, and that makes it special instead of burdensome. Huzzah. Do invest in sunscreen though, and maybe some good cancer insurance coverage. Seriously, the summers go over 100 degrees routinely. Sure, it’s a dry heat, but saying that won’t ease the sting of that third-degree sunburn.

There are a couple neighborhoods within North Las Vegas, but they’re really just areas of lower rents or the few fancy-schmancy areas. Just outside of NLV are some other options worth having a peek at, if only for comparisons sake.

North Las Vegas: There are a couple neighborhoods, like Vegas Heights, which has lots of studios and suuuuper low rents, and Wann, which is a higher income area with better-educated folks and more single-family homes. But most of NLV is similar, as in inexpensive housing and mostly owner occupied.

West Las Vegas: The cost of living is bottom of the barrel, but if you desperately need cut-price housing and don’t have kids, it may do. It does have lots of rental properties and an attractively over-sized vacancy rate.

North NLV: Yes, there’s a north to North Las Vegas--duh. It’s also definitely worth exploring. It’s the lowest cost location right around NLV. It’s diverse, with lots of rentals ranging from studios to two bedroom apartments to single-family homes, and it’s near Shadow Creek Golf Course. Wait a minute. Why is this area so inexpensive? No one knows.

Twin Lakes: To the west of NLV is this tasty offering. Naturally, the vacancy rate is low, but it’s not nothing! Plan a month in advance, and youre golden.

Downtown Las Vegas: Might as well compare, right? Well it’s not as inexpensive as most areas around NLV

Neither rich nor famous probably, the folks residing in North Las Vegas aren’t so different from you. They love hitting the local parks, hitting the links at the numerous local golf courses and going shopping at one of the several malls. They also like to eat. There’s a solid amount of tasty eats here! There are also oodles of rifle and gun ranges, where tourists line up to use fully automatic weapons in a legal space and locals just practice using their handguns and whatnot. If youre looking for intellectual stimulation, well, that’s a bit harder, but there are some live performance venues and movie theaters. Theres a, uh, well, no that’s about it. But Vegas is just around the bend, so head over for a Cirque show or something if you need it.

North Las Vegas is a pretty great spot to settle in if you work in Las Vegas, a green business or the Clark County School District, which employs 37,000 employees. With classic amenities like parks and golf courses, shopping and dining establishments as well as proximity to the nations greatest adult playground, it’s hard to say no to NLV, especially considering that the cost of everything is low, low, low. Just get some good renters insurance, leave the kids with mom and dad, and buy up all the sunscreen you can find. Viva North Las Vegas!

August 2017 North Las Vegas Rent Report

Welcome to the August 2017 North Las Vegas Rent Report. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the North Las Vegas rental market, including comparisons to similar cities nationwide.

North Las Vegas rents increase sharply over the past month

North Las Vegas rents have increased 0.6% over the past month, and are up significantly by 4.5% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in North Las Vegas stand at $890 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,110 for a two-bedroom. This is the eleventh straight month that the city has seen rent increases after a decline in August of last year. North Las Vegas' year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of 4.4%, as well as the national average of 2.9%.

North Las Vegas rents more affordable than many large cities nationwide

As rents have increased in North Las Vegas, a few large cities nationwide have seen rents grow more modestly, or in some cases, even decline. North Las Vegas is still more affordable than most large cities across the country.

North Las Vegas' median two-bedroom rent of $1,110 is below the national average of $1,160. Nationwide, rents have grown by 2.9% over the past year.

While North Las Vegas' rents rose over the past year, the city of Oklahoma City saw a decrease of 0.6%.

Renters will find more reasonable prices in North Las Vegas than most large cities. Comparably, Los Angeles has a median 2BR rent of $1,730, which is more than one-and-a-half times the price in North Las Vegas.

For more information check out our
national report.
You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at
this link.

Methodology - Recent Updates:

Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.

Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.

Methodology:

Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.

Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.

About Rent Reports:

Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.

We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.